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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague from New Hampshire and my colleague from Vermont for both giving extraordinarily thoughtful comments.

The reality is, when you talk about these deals, what you are really talking about, the Trump agreements is essentially giving our country a few lines scratched on a napkin.

There is very little ``there'' there. And I so appreciate my colleagues seeking to free our citizens from crushing new trade taxes, courtesy of Donald Trump's tariffs. He slapped tariffs on things people buy from scores of countries. So he has hit cars and car parts, aluminum, beer, food, and clothing. The list goes on and on. That means just that Americans are going to pay more to buy the things they need because Trump taxes jack up the price.

This month, Donald Trump has been announcing these so-called trade deals from a handful of countries. So as I indicated, these are really much. The USMCA, which was something that Donald Trump participated in, was a real trade deal, was the result of intense negotiations, a transparent process, a bipartisan vote in the Congress. I was honored to be the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee as we worked together to get this passed. That deal produced real wins for the American people, like Oregon potato growers were able to ship potatoes to Mexico for the first time in decades.

Donald Trump's latest deals mostly consist of a tariff number, 20 percent on products from Vietnam, for example, with some sort of fake or vague promise that the rest will be figured out later. Instead of having an enforceable, binding agreement that opens markets to U.S. farmers and manufacturers and small businesses now, as I say, we get a little bit of verbiage put on a napkin or a piece of paper.

Not surprisingly, when Trump describes the deals, his story is often enormously different from what these countries say they agreed to. For example, Japan says it will provide up to $550 billion of financing in the United States. That is fine. Donald Trump claims Japan promised to create a $550 billion fund that will be spent at his direction-- essentially, a personal slush fund. Meanwhile, Vietnam has not even confirmed that it has agreed to the deal Donald Trump announced.

What does our country get in exchange for these higher tariffs that are paid by our people? Significant economic pain.

U.S. workers and employers are already getting battered by the trade chaos of Donald Trump. The big three U.S. automakers all announced plunging profits. General Motors lost more than a billion dollars due to tariffs. Instead of making U.S. automakers better off, the new tariff scheme is going to make our cars and trucks more expensive compared to Japanese competitors.

It is going to get worse. Because of Donald Trump's endless flip- flops on tariffs, the real cost of his trade taxes are going to go fully into effect in coming months.

Donald Trump can do all this because he, basically, goes off, does his own thing, and is claiming emergency powers to pursue the tariffs. My colleagues and I are proposing straightforward legislation to clarify the President's emergency powers. We say they have got to be used in emergencies and can't be used to put tariffs on things Americans buy from other countries.

A number of our Republican colleagues have supported Senator Shaheen's proposal in the past. Putting a check on the President's power to land us in trade wars didn't used to be a partisan effort. Senator Welch, Senator Markey, a number of my colleagues, and I want to exempt small businesses from having to pay Trump's emergency tariffs. That is because these small businesses are the least able to absorb big new government taxes on the materials they need to make their goods.

The bill my colleague Senator Shaheen and I are trying to pass today would rein in some of Donald Trump's worst impulses. The Shaheen legislation would clarify that the laws on the books were never meant-- never--to be a blank check for the President to abuse tariffs by using them as a punishment against a country--maybe multiple countries--that are hurting his feelings.

At the same time, my home State of Oregon is fighting these tariffs in court with arguments that will happen tomorrow. Donald Trump and his billionaire allies aren't going to feel the impact of higher tariffs. So I guess that may be why they don't care about the millions of Americans who do care deeply and can't afford higher costs.

Congress and the courts have to make clear that the tariff roller coaster in America has got to be stopped.

I thank my colleagues for their leadership on this issue.

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